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HELP Rescue Kids
A lot of people and churches tend to make a lot of excuses when it comes to loving and serving the poor. Usually it’s the time or money excuse. Here’s the deal…You can help rescue homeless orphans in Zimbabwe without spending any money out of your current monthly budget. This is why we created The Campaign to End Poverty. Two simple scenarios:
1. Find stuff you don’t need, use or maybe your willing to sacrifice. Sell those items on ebay or Craigslist and donate the proceeds to HELP. 100% of all funds will go towards building an orphanage in Zimbabwe.
2. Get a group of people together from your church, neighborhood, co-workers, family or friends, and throw a garage sell party. A church in Pennsylvania just raised $3500. They did a two-day garage sell. $25,000 is our target goal for one new orphanage, that church raised over 10% of our target goal in two days!
Yes, we can save homeless orphans by selling our stuff and donating it. Simple, easy and effective!
If you are willing to do this, or want more info, leave a comment or email us: info (@) helpendlocalpoverty.(org)
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We are going to Uganda!
We are going to Uganda…well kind-of. My friend, fellow Austin pastor and HELP board member Jonathan Dodson is taking a team to Uganda this week. Jonathan is partnering with Acts 29, Desiring God and Help End Local Poverty to love and serve orphans in Uganda and train local pastors. Please pray for him and his church as they travel, serve and love the people of Uganda.
Since we’ve launched this website in 2008 a lot has changed for HELP. Luckily its all for the better as we’ve narrowed our vision to keep things simple and effective. Our hope is one thing, to love and serve orphans in the Global South by rescuing homeless orphans through our Campaign to End Poverty initiative, and restoring them through our Help One Now initiative, (you can see a sneak peak now). Our hope is this: If we can help the local leader rescue and restore orphans, that local leader will then be able to focus on long-term development in key areas such as economics, health, spirituality, etc!
So our media ninjas are working on a new website as we speak. This new site is going to be awesome as we simplify the vision and create pathways to love and serve orphans around the world. I can’t wait! -
CTEP-The Dream
Yesterday shared a little about our desire to love and serve our friends in Zimbabwe. Today I wanted to continue the conversation as we begin to build towards the launch of CTEP.
In a nutshell, there are many needs in our world. Extreme poverty is an ugly issue and its going to take a lot of hard work to create the change that is necessary to end it. So lets get started.
Our hope is 3 fold in 2009 as it relates to serving our friends in Zimbabwe.
1. Build a new home for orphaned kids on the current property.
2. Purchase new mattresses so the kids don’t have to sleep on the ground.
3. Purchase new school uniforms for the kids.As you can tell this is very practical. We just believe that every kid should have a place to call home, a bed to sleep in, and clean clothes so they can feel good about themselves. If we can help in these areas, we feel like the community would be well served as they already have local leaders who are doing so much to love and support the kids.
Moving on…So we thought to ourselves, what would it look like to ask our friends in the West to help us end local poverty in Zimbabwe? How could we create a movement of love, hope and story?
Are you willing to help? Are you willing to ask others to help?
Tomorrow I will share practical ways that you can help us, help our friends in Zimbabwe.
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87 Reasons To Sell Something
Wow, so much going on as of late. But, I wanted to give everyone a quick update. This Monday we should be launching The Campaign to End Poverty website. Scotty from Studio 914 is currently working on this project.
HELP is currently focused on ending poverty in Marondera, Zimbabwe, which is a city on the outskirts of Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. We are currently working with a local Zimbabwean leader and also Steven and Amy from Servlife. HELP’s desire is to start a movement of love, hope and story, so we can educate people and help eradicate extreme poverty. We see ourselves as brokers; we want to provide leverage to our friends on the ground who are the real unknown heroes.
How? Because we are quite brilliant…OK, maybe not…But, we truly want to make a difference in this small community and we trust the local leader who is truly a servant of God. We have decided to launch this campaign in hope of raising $40,000. These funds will go to orphan rescue and orphan support in Zimbabwe. Currently there is 87 orphans that we want to help care for and of course we desire to help rescue the others who have no shelter.
Of course, here is the deal…We need your help to make this happen. Tomorrow I will fill you in on the details, but lets just say it has something to do with you selling something (fighting consumerism) and giving the proceeds away to our friends in Zimbabwe.
More info tomorrow, but for now, can you stop and say a prayer for HELP and CTEP?
Thanks.
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Serve Austin Sunday
This Sunday H.E.L.P. is partnering with Austin New Church for their Serve Austin Sunday event. Basically instead of attending a traditional church gathering this Sunday, Austin New Church serves the city through various projects like:
- Downtown Grillout for the Homeless – in the past year, ANC has served thousands of hot meals to the Homeless of Downtown Austin. On Sunday the 29th, we will once again serve at 7th and Neches from 3pm – 5pm. Directions
- Extreme Make Over Caritas – Caritas is one of the leading non-profits in Austin assisting the dispossessed and refugee. On March 29th, we will help Caritas, by creating an environment of respect and dignity through some much needed renovation from 1:30-5pm. Directions
- RESTORE: Foundation for the Homeless Landscaping Project – Foundation for the Homeless has assisted homeless families in the Austin area for the last 15 years in achieving a life of self-sufficiency. On March 29th, Austin New Church will serve them in a landscaping effort at their main office (which also serves as a training center and transitional home), to create an environment of peace and beauty from 1-5pm. Directions
- RENOVATE: Soli Deo Gloria – Join us in renovating our newest RESTORE Mission to east Austin – ANC East: Soli Deo Gloria. If you want to be apart of this, then join us from 2-5pm on March 29th.
We will be working at Soli Deo Gloria. My friend David Avila is the pastor and we are excited to join him and his community to serve. For more info please go to our Facebook events page.
Hope to see you Sunday!
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Raleigh Launch Party
Photo Credit: Jeff Pittman
Can’t wait for the Raleigh Launch Party on Sunday March 15th. Looking forward to seeing old friends, meeting new friends and sharing the vision for H.E.L.P. For more detailed information visit here. Also, Wahba and Silver (acoustic) will be performing. FYI-the entire show is FREE! We will have coffee and desserts available.
We will be selling some pretty cool T-shirts and the artist will be selling their music. So please bring some cash and or checks. The T-shirts are made by American Apparel and go for a minimum donation for $20-all proceeds goes to the orphans we support in Zimbabwe, buy a t-shirt support-a-kid, can’t beat that! See you soon!
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The Launch Party
I’m excited to announce that HELP is finally going public (whatever that means). Feb 28th we are throwing a launch party @ Sodade. It’s going to be a fun-filled evening with some yummy coffee (Sodade is one of the best in Austin), live music, art, photography, story-telling, and I will share for 15 minutes on the future of HELP and how YOU can get involved. Trust me, we need your help to make this happen, remember our passion is to create a tribe of people who will fight extreme poverty.
Now for the details:
1. Aaron Ivey will be performing. Aaron is one of the worship leaders at Austin Stone. He also started Spur 58 back in the day. He tours with Compassion and is also involved in Real Hope for Haiti.
2. Nate Navarro is also playing. Nate is on staff at Austin City Life and he’s just released a new CD: Broken becomes beautiful.
Both of these guys are amazing musicians, but they both bleed compassion and missional living. We really appreciate them taking time out to jam with us and for believing in our vision.
We would love for you to come. We’ve created a Facebook page, if possible, please RSVP. Also, link this post to your blog, share it on your Facebook and invite your friends.
Can’t wait to see you on Feb 28th. Doors open at 6PM. First performance starts at 6:15PM.
BTW: We are working on an after party gig with some more local musicians. More info soon!
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Update On Zimbabwe
Steven, who is our partner in Africa and works with Servlife, recently spent time in Zimbabwe where he is working with a local pastor.
While Steven was in Zimbabwe he recorded a podcast with three local Zimbabweans, which includes a doctor and a teacher. You can listen to that podcast here. The stories are heart-breaking but also filled with hope.
We are working with Steven and Pastor John to help end local poverty in Zimbabwe. You can also help:
1. Donate Funds: Click here and you can donate via Paypal or you can send a check. 100% of all donations will be sent to Steven who will purchase food in S. Africa and take it to our contact in Zimbabwe to feed the orphans and greater community.
2. Sponsor a child: Pastor John in Zimbabwe runs two orphanages with a total of 84 kids. 50 of those kids still needs a monthly sponsor. You can sponsor a child by clicking here.
3. Spread the news: Please link this story to your blog, add a banner to your website, join and invite friends on our Facebook page and follow-us and encourage others to follow-us on Twitter.
Once again we want to thank you for your support as we continue to launch this non-profit and serve those in poverty.
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Holiday Shopping & Poverty
Last week I hit on the topic of consumerism. It’s easy to always focus on an issue without creating pathways for change. We’re all consumers, that is not bad. We need to consume to keep the economy flowing which hopefully can help resource people. If we’re not greedy and we choose to consume with wisdom, we can make a significant difference and help end extreme poverty.
The problem is when consuming becomes an obsession. When we spend more then we make or we use all of our resources on our wants, our desires and our passions…Another-words we don’t give generously and consider “others before ourselves.”Here are some convictions that have become important to me.
I EVENTUALLY want to give away 20-25% of my resources and I want to only buy with cash. No credit outside of mortgage and college loans. This helps me create healthy boundaries as I consider how to utilize my resources and make sure I avoid falling into sin by consuming and being selfish.
So as we think about the holidays and gift-giving. Maybe one of the ways we can fight consumerism is to give gifts with meaning, gifts that fights poverty and blesses hard working people in under-developed countries. Below I’m going to list multiple organizations that are fighting poverty and selling quality merchandise in order to make a difference.
Need new shoes…Buy from Tom. When you buy a pair of shoes Tom donates a pair to kids in under–developed nations like S. Africa.
Invisible Children is partnering with business owners in Uganda who are making great bracelets so they can ignite the local economy. You also get a DVD.
My friends at Servlife have multiple items you can buy from business owners in Asia.
You can support the Feed Project by purchasing a bag to help the hungry.
Support those who are fighting human trafficking by purchasing a t-shirt or CD. The CD includes great artists like Cold War Kids, Matisyahu, Rocco Deluca, and Switchfoot among others.
Jedidiah also has some great clothing options from their Hope Collection. So far they’ve raised over $200,000 for those in-need. I have three of these t-shirts.
For those who love to read you can buy a book for them and support an orphan in the process.If you know of any others organizations who are doing likewise please feel free to leave a comment with their info.
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Get Involved
We continue to move forward with our vision for HELP. We always get people asking how they can help. Since you asked I thought I would answer:
1. Please join HELP’s Facebook Page and take the pledge. (ask all your FB friends to join). This is a vital step as we try to create a tribe of people dedicated to helping end local poverty.
2. Follow Us on Twitter. Twitter is quick and short and with the touch of a button ( or mouse) I can send important information to a lot of people.
3. Bookmark or RSS our website. RSS means every-time we update our page it will go directly to you’re news reader, such as Bloglines or Google Reader. It’s an easy to way to stay informed with all things Help End Local Poverty.
4. Pray for us. Pray that God has favor on our ministry. We really need some miracles right now.
